Retaining an SEO Consultant - Is it Worth the Price?

Your new website is ready for the world to see. You've done everything right and you want unlimited traffic to that site. You have created numerous email accounts to accommodate that traffic being directed and tracked properly. You think that you have done everything right but you forgot one thing - Search Engine Optimization.

How will I stand out in the search engine results without expert search engine optimization services?

When you have the flu, you go to your doctor. When you need to keep your car air conditioner repaired, you take it to an auto mechanic who specializes in air conditioner repair. I don't think you would want to handle it yourself or if you did and it doesn't work, off to the experts. So now your small business Web site needs SEO help, and you want to retain an SEO consultant and believe it is worth the cost.

Right?

Most times I agree that retaining an SEO expert is the answer, but sometimes, maybe not. Some business owners find that when they retain an SEO consultant the rewards simply don't justify the up-front investment. If you want to make sure that your site is optimized for search engines, do your research and find out how you will benefit.

Consider some of the following points:

* The need for a SEO consultant will diminish over time. If your site is failing to attract visitors, a SEO consultant will be able to help explain why it is no performing as expected, but if your site doesn't keep them coming back, there's nothing an SEO consultant can do about that, unless you are willing to make the changes necessary to counter these actions. The law of diminished returns will start taking effect.

* Sometimes small businesses refuse to make the necessary changes, then the benefits of SEO won't justify the cost. If you were told you had to invest $1,000 a month to keep your Web site updated and SEOed, you'd probably find a way to justify that investment. Looking at the numbers and doing your research on how much money that SEO brings in, it's possible you may be discouraged. Don't be. It's difficult to measure the return on SEO, and in some cases, there may be better places to invest your money. Your SEO consultant can help you with redirecting your investment where it would be more beneficial.

However there are benefits to hiring an SEO consultant? Did you know the Small Business Administration Study showed that your hourly rate or value is $250 per hour?

How many hours would it take you to do all this yourself vs. outsourcing is the question!

* Outsourcing your SEO to an expert takes it out of your hand and frees you up for other things. Often small business owners are jack-of-all-trades in their business and they simply don't know how to handle SEO. Believe me; hiring a consultant is exactly what the doctor ordered. Giving this task to the SEO expert will allow them to work their magic and give you one less gruesome item on your gotta do list every day.

* Since you aren't the expert you often miss the obvious. It like driving there are blind spots. Lots of business owners think they know SEO, but when they hire a professional, they realize that the expert's objective eve will be able to spot these blind spots and remove the weak areas.

My suggestion is to find a reliable SEO consultant that tracks the revenue that is generated because of their expertise. Make sure that you are viewing your Web site stats and following the recommendations of the SEO consultant.

As in a segment of business, there are good and bad consultants that offer a varying degree of service and quality. SEO technology is still relatively new and, it's real easy to pay someone too much money or too little for less than thrilling results. I suggest a 90 day trial. You should have some clear plus positive results within 90 days.

Before you hire an SEO consultant, ask yourself about one basic question: What's the ROI? In every other aspect of your business and life, you should know about your return on investment (ROI). SEO is no different!

SEO Consultant VS SEO Software

Everyone talks about SEO software that will give you the best search engine placement on Google, Yahoo, and Bing but have you ever thought about it from an SEO consultant point of view? Everyone is probably waiting to hear an answer who is better? In this article I will explain to you some of the advanced SEO techniques that are used by SEO consultants and compare it with SEO software capabilities.

Capabilities:

When it comes to the capabilities of software solution it is limited to software version. The software is developed by developers who develop software as per "development requirement" and the software will not perform tasks outside the development requirement. Hence this will limit this software to restricted functions. You may upgrade the capabilities of the current software by purchasing a newer version however it will still be limited.

When it comes to SEO consultant it depends on number of factors such as experience, research, training and brightness. Also a good SEO consultant is a consultant that researches allot and tries multiple of techniques into the search engine and determine the best practice. Hence this will make SEO consultant superior to SEO software due to unlimited capabilities of the consultant from the research, training and experience. You should ask your self a question who helps in the development of the SEO software. The answer is an SEO consultant instructs the main capabilities of the SEO software during initial stage of software development.

Performance:

This is very clear from the above point and I can guarantee you that an SEO consultant will perform way better than SEO software subject to the amount of time spends in an SEO campaign. I have tried many SEO packages during my initial period of SEO consultancy and it doesn't matter what you do, you cannot perform better than initial trial, and in many occasions my ranking will drop lower because of competition. One way of doing better is to try other software which may perform slightly better and again the search placement will drop due to competition. This is the stage where you need an SEO consultant to boost your search engine placement higher.

Search Engine Algorithm update:

In many occasions the search engine changes algorithm, which directly affects the ranking results. The SEO software will be incapable to make the essential change because it is programmed and this during:

• Search Engine changes keyword density from 3% to 2%.

This change will make your search engine placement to drop. If the software recommended a 3% keyword density. From my experience this drop will be some thing like 2-4 pages depending on the keyword density used. Simply the software will not be smart enough to detect the change unless you buy a new software version. The SEO consultant can easily analyse the change and reduces the keyword density to 2% which is quicker. SEO consultants can also make a quick action regarding the following changes:

• Search Engine reduces the importance of page title
• Search Engine reduces the importance of meta description
• Search Engine limits the number of incoming links from page A to page B
• Search Engine limits the number of incoming links from site A to site B

In every occasion the software will not be able to think like a human. Therefore your project will suffer form the limitation of software. In conclusion I say nothing will replace a good SEO consultant and I can confirm it to you for example type the keyword "SEO" in Google search box you will see on page 1 of Google the list of many SEO companies who used SEO consultants to optimize their site.

Staffing Agencies - First Action Towards Your Staffing Contract

Nothing is more exciting than finding your first client for your medical staffing agency. You may be starting a recruiting staffing agency or a nursing or OT temp agency, it does not matter what you are starting, what matters is how to find your first client.

Well, this action is what drives any new business crazy. You can have what I call the paper business set up, but if you cannot find clients, your business will not survive.

So, what must a new staffing agency do to get your first contract? Well, let me as the question differently, what action, if done today will produce the higher likelihood of your company securing its first contract?

If I had to pick one action and one action only to do to find my first staffing contract I would approach a manager and offer them your company as a backup to their existing staffing agency. I would not push my staffing agency as the primary source.

Why not? Well, I believe a soft approach will turn into a viable contract as appose to approaching a facility with a hard offer of you versus them.

What I mean is, the current staffing agency that may be firmly implanted in a facility may be there because they know somebody or the charge a very good price. I have always found that something is always wrong, something may not be good and that is what you will need to find out.

The sooner you get into finding out what is wrong the sooner you will get a contract. That is why I always tell my readers to enter marketing to a facility as a soft approach. The soft marketing approach to hospitals may be the difference between getting a staffing contract and not finding any business.

There are many other methods you can use and I recommend many more type of marketing methods, but the question was just using one method, what method would I use.

You will have to be persistent when meeting managers or supervisors. These are the decision makers and those decisions makers are who you are trying to impress. Make them believe your services are the best, make them want to talk to you. Offer them a free shift to get to know you company. Send your best employee or send yourself to cover the shift if you are able to. Do whatever it takes to make sure you fulfill the needs of the client once you get your first medical staffing contract.

An article by Dougles Chan - The Recruitment Guru. Also known as the Zhuge Liang for recruitment. A recruitment coach & mentor that specialized on coaching recruitment business owners and staffing agency recruiters.

Author of 8 books. 25 years in recruitment business coaching & mentoring. Focus countries will be in Singapore, USA, UK, Australia and others.

He created the recruitment agency market tumour law, C-Marketing, V-Marketing and blog marketing for recruitment agencies and staffing agencies.

He also specialized in business, sales, marketing, digital marketing, SEO, SEM, and social media recruiting. For 1 to 1 private consulting or recruitment coaching, please check here.
He also writes articles related to how to start a recruiting business & how to get clients for a staffing agency

Five Things to Keep In Mind While Choosing a Staffing Agency

Finding skilled and professionally qualified workforce is no more a cakewalk in a competitive market where candidates are offered with lucrative pay packages and flexible work conditions by numerous employees. Staffing firms give easy solutions to fill vacancies from executive level to managerial level. Small and Medium Enterprises often look for temporary or temporary-to-permanent employees who can be hired at an economical rate. But before partnering with employment agencies, make sure that the agencies' code of conduct should be based on fair policies and values so that you can avoid pitfalls of getting into legal traps. Here are some implications which an employer should keep in mind when you work with a staffing agency:

Work with a staffing firm who know the value of trust that employers, associates and clients have in them. Always look for a firm which has a good market reputation and rated as average to excellent in assessment charts. Check for performance parameter and certifications that the agency possesses.

If your staffing agency believes in keeping written records of the services which they are offering you, then it is an affirmative indication. If they support a fair discussion on medical policies, taxes, laws and Fair Labour Standards Act before getting into the written contract formalities, then it is a dependable staffing agency.

As per the latest trends of the staffing industry, reputed agencies not only give workforce solutions but, also take care of training and development of the employees. Besides this, they have strict policies on turn up time, pay scale and acts of indiscipline. Persuade that your staffing agencies include the above when they offer you their services. These trends are applicable specifically in case of contingent or contract base workforce.

Reputed staffing firms have their own database and employee management structure. When an employee is deployed on a contract or temporary basis, recruitment agencies provide them their employee ID, Badges and other credentials which are not associated with clients' permanent employees credentials.

Fair Labour Standards Acts preside over payments for overtime work. If your workforce solution provider keeps a record of these payments and it is being conferred and discussed with you before it is being charged, then indeed your agency is a bonafide consulting.

Choosing the best agency from a horde of staffing agencies which acknowledge your workforce requirements efficiently and works on fair policies is a tedious task. But there are firms which feel themselves privileged of walking an extra mile to set high standards of working in the staffing industry.

An article by Dougles Chan - The Recruitment Guru. Also known as the Zhuge Liang for recruitment. A recruitment coach & mentor that specialized on coaching recruitment business owners and staffing agency recruiters.

Author of 8 books. 25 years in recruitment business coaching & mentoring. Focus countries will be in Singapore, USA, UK, Australia and others.

He created the recruitment agency market tumour law, C-Marketing, V-Marketing and blog marketing for recruitment agencies and staffing agencies.

He also specialized in business, sales, marketing, digital marketing, SEO, SEM, and social media recruiting. For 1 to 1 private consulting or recruitment coaching, please check here.

He also writes articles related to how to start a recruiting business & how to get clients for a staffing agency

What is eCommerce

An article by Dougles Chan - The Recruitment Guru. A recruitment business coach that specialized in staffing agency business. Specialized on coaching recruitment agencies & Staffing Agencies. Author of 8 books. 25 years in business coaching in recruitment and staffing agencies. Training recruitment business owners in Singapore, USA, UK, and Australia. He specialized in business, sales, marketing, digital marketing, 360 recruitment process, SEO Services, SEM, and social media recruiting. For 121 staffing agency coaching, kindly check here.

Ecommerce is a big thing these days and anyone wanting to get into earning money online needs to know a bit about this popular topic. Ecommerce is basically online business, whether selling a product or service on the internet, if you are earning money online, you are involved in ecommerce. This article will explain a bit more about the basics of this emerging phenomenon.

Starting an online business is not that different from starting an offline one. The concept is much the same in that you still need to have a product to promote, customers to buy it and a way to reach those customers. The process is similar to starting an offline business, you will need a business plan and funding, although ecommerce can be cheaper than the traditional storefront.

Choosing a product is the first step in beginning an e-commerce venture. This can be absolutely anything under the sun, from consumer electronics to bathing suits, from e-books and e-reports. Whether you decide to sell information products that are available online for download or physical, real world products that can be shipped to the customer is up to you and your budget.

Information products are ideal for ecommerce because they require microscopic investment, if any. If you can write, you can create an information product and make it available for download without any cost whatsoever. Physical products are a little more difficult since you need to have them on hand to be able to ship to the customer when an order comes in, and this requires maintaining an inventory.

The most common way to reach your ecommerce customers is through the use of a website or e-store, so you will either need to have someone build your ecommerce site for you or learn how to do it yourself. The advantages of having a website over a real-world storefront are many, but the first is cost. You can find extremely cheap website hosting and a domain name can be had for less than ten dollars, making ecommerce extremely affordable.

There are many resources online if you are willing to take the time to learn how to build your website and you can save a lot of money this way. However, it is often more efficient to hire an expert to create the site that you want, or to use a template pre-designed for ecommerce use. Many web hosts offer pre-made templates.

Last, you need to be able to bring in customers. This can be done through advertising, article marketing and by providing quality products and information that encourage people to tell their friends about you. If your ecommerce idea and product is good enough, you will even have other webmasters linking to you which can really boost sales!

Ecommerce is a great way to get into sales, but you do need to do some research ahead of time. Decide what you want to sell and research the market for it, then build a website and start advertising. There is quite a bit of competition in ecommerce, but you can get into it for such a low price that it is well worth the effort.

SEO Consultancy Services - SEO Consultant to Dominate Search Engines

If you are really desperate for higher search engine rankings then the expert SEO consultation is always a boon to your business. Many business firms spend a lot of money behind marketing and advertisement of their products. All serious firms are aware that search engine optimization is the brightest future of online business. As SEO is comparatively new marketing concept to the others, business owners are always in search of good SEO consultation from the experts. And they are no more wrong as it can improve your business not dramatically but drastically.

As there are millions of people searching for the services and products from the search-engines, it is always necessary to be ranked high in search engine results. To get top rankings in search-engines, you must optimize your website according with the search-engine algorithm. SEO consultants are the expert in the field of search engine optimization and they better know better about the search engine algorithm than the others.

Most of the businesses avoid hiring search engine marketing consultant seeing their higher costs. But they are not aware of their ability to boom their business significantly soaring in online market. You just need to give some attention before hiring SEO consultation.

Calculate the Right Consultancy Fees:

One of the most frequent questions comes into the mind of consulting services hirer is consultancy fees. They are always wondering that how and what do the SEO consultancy services charge to the clients.

There are numerous ways that consultancy services charge when they are billing to their clients. They can charge hourly bases, monthly bases, fixed rate contracts, extra overheads and travelling charges. Some SEO consultancy services providers also charges on performance bases which is the best and frequent choices among the clients mostly.

Knowledge and Portfolio of SEO Consultant:

Reputable and expert search engine optimisation service consultant will always have a sound knowledge of the SEO techniques and latest trends. He always keeps his client advised of new and useful industry trends. Expert SEO consultant is able to provide significant analysis and discover new possibilities and resources to boost your online business.

The SEO consultant can work with your existing staff and produce the efficient results within given timeline. Search engine giants like Google, Yahoo and Bing always keep their very secret algorithms changing. So the expert SEO consultant can be able to find the latest changes in search engine algorithms. Nowadays, social media sites like Facebook, and Twitter are also producing great results so the need of SEO consultant is becoming more and more necessary.

Gaining high search-engine rankings gives you a very high return on investment. The right SEO consultancy services can give your business a great exposure and take it to the next level. Your website is your online identity and search-engines are the great tool to make it more powerful and prominent.

SEO Consulting For Big Brand Websites - 20 Tips on Dealing With Different Levels of Administrators

SEO consultation for large brand websites challenges the SEO consultants with unique situations. Dealing with the different levels of executives and managers is one of these unique problems.

In reality the actual SEO techniques used for small sites and large sites do not necessarily change. However, the problems which SEO consultants have to overcome can be far apart. One factor is of course the size of the web site. Small sites may contain a few hundred pages whereas large corporate sites contain thousands of pages that continue to grow with time. The other major factor is the number of people who are involved in managing and maintaining these large websites. In a small website, it is usually the business owner who will take all the decisions, but with a large website ten persons or more could be involved in the process.

The following tips will help SEO consultants survive the experience of providing SEO consulting to big brand companies:

1 - The vital element in providing SEO consulting to these big sites is to start an educative training program to inform all involved levels and departments of the importance of applying sound search engine optimization techniques as well as how, when and where to apply these techniques.

2 - The top administrative levels are more important to convince of the essential need for effective SEO practices. They are the decision makers and the survival of the whole SEO project depends on them.

3 - The staff of different departments must be involved in the process, from the web development team to the marketing team, sales representatives and even financial officers and controllers who determine budgets. SEO is a team effort so anyone who is involved with the web site development, from designers up to the CEO must be included.

4 - All levels need education and training to have a common language and realistic expectations. Based on his or her initial evaluation of the company's website, an SEO consultant should prepare a comprehensive educational and training seminar or workshop for the staff.

5 - An SEO consultant must try to arrange a weekly or monthly seminar to all staff and executives involved in the SEO project to explain to them the process and set realistic expectations to avoid failure.

6 - SEO consultants must avoid any personality conflicts or issues at all costs; they may cause failure of the whole project. Many SEO companies charge more for the difficulty to work with administrators.

7 - As an SEO consultant you must be able to teach and train the executives and staff. In the mean time, an SEO consultant must be capable and ready to learn and acquire new expertise from each member in the team mainly through different questions and challenges that will arise during the long process of SEO.

An SEO consultant, executives and other staff members must be able to work together as a productive team, share experience and learn from each other.

8 - Be realistic. Every body must know that SEO is a team work and it takes a lot of time and hard work to show results.

9 - Be motivational and keep the enthusiasm of all the team high.

10 - Evaluate and update knowledge and the information of the executives. A lot of their information is obtained from forums and blogs which are at most times outdated and wrong.

11 - Make it clear to all the SEO team that for each hour of SEO consultant's work, there is 6 - 8 hours needed by the company staff to implement and do the recommended changes.

12 - SEO Consultants must be able to explain and justify every recommendation or change they ask for.

13- Select areas where SEO will be successful or easy to show quick results first.

14 - Explain to the SEO team that all recommendations must be followed, not only part of them. To get to the first page is like competing in the Olympics: every effort must be done to get the gold medal. It is very competitive out there.

15 - Company executives usually ask for a Traffic estimate, so you must have a goal.

To estimate the expected increase in the search engine traffic, you need to find out the monthly search volume for all the long tail keyword phrases that you are optimizing for. Usually you will get 10% of these searches if you managed to get your long tail keyword phrases to the first page of Google.

In reality, SEO is not about ranking, it is about traffic. Every body must start to understand this important fact.

16 - Prepare a set of tools to allow you to monitor and track different sources of traffic and every possible change in your progress.

17 - Define your base line before you start, so you can evaluate your progress and measure of success. Decide where you are in ranking and traffic and what your goals are.

18 - Every executive is eager to see results and success. Explain to everybody that it takes as long as it takes; it is not like PPC. We have no control on Google spiders. Traffic will reach its goal, but how long it will take is not an easy question to answer. Many factors can cause delays. Google changes its algorithm more than 400 times a year. Search engines take time to consider these links, some times up to several months and the competition is optimizing and affecting our results every day.

A stable search engine ranking for a competitive keyword can take anywhere from 4-12 months, but you have to remain focused on the ranking objective over time

19 -Weekly or monthly prepare reports to show continuous improvement once the SEO strategy is in place.

20 - Carefully analyze and interpret the results from different tools, and publish to executives these regular reports about the progress in ranking, traffic and link popularity.

By following these recommendations, SEO consultants can ensure a smooth productive relationship with different levels of executives of big brand companies and all other staff members involved in the long exhaustive process of search engine optimization.